Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Not all test runs will be so clean. The playback is very unforgiving. Failures can occur
due to minute problems in the position of an item on the screen or the slightest vari-
ation in any of its attributes, such as color, font, or value, for example.
Playback Options
Playback options are independent of the recorded test file. This allows you to “turn the
knobs�? for the tests you've already recorded without having to recapture the results.
Speed is an important playback option. In Vermont HighTest the playback speed
ranges from 1 to 100, where a value of 50 represents the real-time speed of the test
recording. Running the test back at a higher speed can improve your automated test
throughput. However, running at too fast a rate can cause new test failures. You will
have to analyze the results to distinguish between failures caused by improper test
speed versus actual game code failures.
Another way to utilize the Speed value is to check the game against potential user
speed “profiles.�? Do elements of the game time out too soon if the player takes a long
time to respond to a dialog or complete a mission? Do game input buffers overflow if
they are bombarded with rapid clicks, buttons, or key presses? These can be real
defects in the game code.
Running the
Dawn of War
test at maximum speed does produce some failures. Look
for the entries in the following log file that have a
Failure
result:
************************************************************
* FileName: c:\documents and settings\administrator\desktop\vht test
files\playspeedmax\test1.inb
* Log Created on: Tue Dec 21 19:17:02 2004
*
* Playback Options:
* Play Speed: 100
* Terminate on Failure:
*
* Ignore During Compare:
************************************************************
ActivateWindow —> “Progman�?, “Program Manager�?, NULL, 10.0......Result: Success
ActivateWindow —> “SysListView32�?, “FolderView�?, 1, 10.0........Result: Success
ClickListView —> 1, “Dawn of War�?, DBLCLK, 0.0..................Result: Success
ActivateWindow —> “Plat::Window {DB3DC0D7-BBA3-4d06-BCD8-40CD448B4AE3}�?, “Warhammer
40,000: Dawn of War�?, NULL, 10.0...Result: Success
